Farm structures on agricultural land · Crop production
Greenhouse
Criteria in the regulation
In short: There is no need to look for an alternative site for a greenhouse. An administrative and technical building of up to 5% of the greenhouse area (at least 20 m²) can be built; no solar panels may be placed on the greenhouse roof.
Conditions
- If a greenhouse of 0.3 ha or more and a vineyard house are requested together, the greenhouse is built first.
- A parcel that is fully permitted and registered as a greenhouse on the title deed can be subdivided if it covers multiples of 0.3 ha, without creating any parcel smaller than 0.3 ha.
- When nothing is being grown, a greenhouse can serve as a temporary shelter for cattle: it must have drying fans, no concrete or paving stones may be laid on the floor, and the land type on the title deed must not change.
Permit route
- Outside a large plain protection area: the provincial directorate of agriculture and forestry reviews the application and the governor's office grants permission; the land class does not matter, no alternative site is required and the Soil Conservation Board is not involved.
- In a large plain protection area: no alternative site is required; the Board's opinion and the Ministry's permission are needed.
Zoning rules
- A steel greenhouse on concrete foundations must be set back 5 m from the road and 2 m from the parcel boundary and does not count towards the FAR; a simple covered greenhouse is subject to neither setbacks nor FAR (Zoning Regulation for Unplanned Areas, art. 63).
- Non-integrated greenhouses can be built without a building permit, with a favourable opinion from the provincial directorate of agriculture and forestry and the local authority's permission (art. 64).
- If the parcel is covered by an approved environmental plan or zoning plan, the plan's provisions apply first.
Interpretation note
The wording "up to 5% of the greenhouse area, provided it is at least 20 m²" can be read in two ways; here it is assumed that even a small greenhouse is entitled to a building of at least 20 m². Under the other reading, no building is allowed with a greenhouse smaller than 400 m².
The new regulation makes no provision for a caretaker's house for greenhouses.
Select your parcel on the map and open "Building on agricultural land › Building types" to calculate this structure's limits with your parcel's data.
Legal basis: Annex 1 Art. 3; Art. 3/1-k · Regulation on the Protection and Use of Agricultural Land (RG 04.04.2026/33214). The criteria in Annex 1 of the Regulation can also be updated by the General Directorate of Agrarian Reform outside the Official Gazette; confirm the current criteria with the provincial directorate of agriculture and forestry before applying.